A Possible Return of The World Ends with You
Of all the things that could foreshadow a possible return of The World Ends with You in some way, it would of course be Tetsuya Nomura’s sartorial choices. First reported by Gamesradar+Nomura, director and designer of Square Enix’s most stylish games, including Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and The World Ends with You, was seen at last week’s D23 event wearing a T-shirt with the text Black Honey Chili Cookie.
Used by Nomura
CHILI COOKIE WITH BLACK HONEY
BHCC 2020 Logo T-Shirt pic.twitter.com/kfZ8foLnoS
– NOCTO (@NOCTO_Official) August 16, 2026
Far from being a Winter Soldier wake-up phrase, Black Honey Chili Cookie is both a real life fashion brand and one that exists in The world ends with you. That he wears the shirt in panel D23 of Kingdom Hearts 4 could be a hint that TWEWY will appear in the game, similar to how Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida did. always appears in cosplay whenever the time comes to announce a new FFXIV job class.
© Square-Enix
The World Ends with You was a popular and well-received game when it was first released in 2007 on the Nintendo DS, but its sequel, released in 2021, was okay and passed pretty quickly. However, it has since acquired cult status within Square Enix’s RPG oeuvre, so the possible inclusion of its characters could be a nice treat for that devoted fan base while also fitting with KH4’s overall vibe. From what I’ve seen so far, KH4, at least on the non-Disney side, seems to be looking for deep cuts. Throughout KH4’s new media, there appear to be numerous characters drawn from lesser-known Kingdom Hearts games like Union Cross, and TWEWY would fight for that. Also, more simply, Kingdom Hearts has featured TWEWY characters before, making them prominent NPCs in Dream Drop Distance, and KH4 might be the right time to get that gang back together.
However! The Black Honey Chili Cookie T-shirt can’t be any kind of clue either. Nomura, known for the eccentric yet legendary fashion choices he creates in his character designs, is friends with the fashion brand’s creator in real life, Hiromu Takaharawho appeared as an NPC in TWEWY. So the t-shirt could be a message or just Nomura doing a little free publicity for a friend. Whatever it means, I appreciate how those connoisseurs of Square Enix RPG history have jumped on this little detail to find out what kind of shenanigans we can expect for KH4. Never stop.
